The Cooperacy governance is the way participants take decisions in Cooperacy, according to cooperation science insights.

MODULES

The Cooperacy governance is made of modules, that can have submodules. Every module is based on the most simple form of cooperation: two or more people doing something together. It is strongly advised every module should have maximum 148 people and two coordinators. Anytime, coordinators may resign, can be substituted upon the module participants’ will or there could be a candidate to become coordinator. A single coordinator is considered provisory, while modules may also decide to elect everyone as coordinator.

DECISIONS

Coordinators may take direct decisions in their module. Only when their decision is publicly communicated it becomes effective. When they are in contrast or unsure about what decision to take, coordinators can ask advice to the participants or start a voting phase.
Participants can propose decisions as well through voting or asking the coordinators for direct approval. The coordinators should abstain when they are the voting main subject.
Participants may also oppose the coordinators decisions. If the opposing participants are at least two1, the coordinators should proportionally and creatively integrate the opposition according to the seven solutions or alternatively start a voting phase.
If a single participants proposes or opposes, but not seconded, their instance is recorded or, when possible, proportionally and creatively integrated.

VOTING

Cooperacy is a design democracy: we vote ideas first, people afterwards. Decisions are voted independently from the people who will enact them, as they will be chosen on a second step.

The voting can be anonymous during the voting phase, but becomes transparent once the results are shown. All voting results are transparent.

The decision making is based on approval voting, that is, everyone may vote with a single vote all the ideas or alternative decisions they want. If there is not a clear orientation2 after the voting phase, the participants leave their choice to the coordinators. They may also choose with the coordinators which one of the seven possible solutions to apply for the realization of the module’s will:

- Turns or experimentations, starting from the most voted
- Give a definite time to test the previous situation and then vote again
- Change the context and pleasantness of the context or the voting process and vote again
- Retrieve more information, listen to all the people positions and decide again
- Separate the module in new ones, splitting eventual budgets
- Evaluate things through data, common values or objective criterias and vote again
- Use proportional creative proportional creative integration with the different solutions or give people or the same solutions specific roles

1: DUAL COORDINATION The idea of a coordinating pair came up in order to avoid power to be concentrated in just one person, that receives huge responsibilities and is alone in facing them, or in more than two people, that may generate internal conflictual groups or collusions. Collective coordination is also possible, although roles will emerge anyways.
2: VOTING IS INFORMATIVE The voting results are indicators of the participants will, they do not explicitly determine a final decision, because winning and losing the voting process is substituted by proportional creative integration.